Careers & Internships

Emerging Journalists Fellowship

Are you an aspiring multimedia journalist who’s interested in working in public media? If so, this may be the job for you. Central Florida Public Media is hiring its inaugural Emerging Journalists Fellow—a position created this year to not only help bridge the gap between college and gaining the needed experience to start your career, but also to give those of us who may have been out of school for quite some time an avenue to a new career. Central Florida Public Media’s Emerging Journalists Fellowship is a yearlong program with a start date in August of 2024. The chosen fellow will be immersed in the news operation and involved in story production from pitch to completion. Fellows will also be trained to host our flagship shows—Morning Edition and All Things Considered. With this fellowship, Central Florida Public Media is working to cultivate the next generation of journalists and newsroom and industry leaders.

Annual Salary: $45,000 plus benefits and generous PTO.

Who We Are

Central Florida Public Media provides Central Florida with journalism and fact-based content that empowers the community to better understand and participate in our diverse and complex world. We serve Central Floridians who seek unbiased, factual, truthful information and nuanced discussion — people who share a common curiosity and concern about the complex issues and challenges facing our community, nation, and world.

We consider our workforce to be our most important asset, and we value our people both as team members and as individuals. The stations are operated by Community Communications, Inc., based in Orlando. We are the primary providers of NPR and public media content in east Central Florida. We offer a full benefits package including health insurance, 401k, and generous paid time off. We embrace flexibility and offer remote work options for most positions.

Position Detail

The Emerging Journalists Fellowship is a full-time position running from August 2024 through July 2025. While most work will be done between the hours of 8-5 p.m. Monday through Friday, the fellow will need to be available for work outside of those hours and on weekends when needed. The ideal applicant is passionate about telling stories amplifying voices of people in traditionally underserved communities, understands the importance of journalistic ethics and is passionate about a career in public media.

Throughout the duration of the fellowship the person hired will be expected to file spot news and longform stories for broadcast as well as multimedia stories for digital. The fellow will also learn to produce and host local segments of both Morning Edition and All Things Considered. As this is a fellowship, Central Florida Public Media is committed to providing professional development and mentorship.

Required qualifications

Curious
Self starter
Able to take direction
Mission driven
Ability to connect and interact with people from different cultures, backgrounds, and ethnicities.
Experience with journalistic, creative and/or academic writing

Preferred qualifications

Experience working as a journalist in a college or professional newsroom
Understanding of journalism ethics
Experience recording and editing audio
Experience recording and editing video
Bi-lingual (Haitian Creole, Spanish, Portuguese)
Experience writing and posting to digital media including websites and social media

What to expect once the fellowship year is over

Completion of the fellowship does not guarantee a full-time or permanent position at Central Florida Public Media. Our goal is to help you make meaningful connections throughout the year and provide an experience that gives you a competitive edge when pursuing a career in journalism.

Location and Working Description

This position is based in Orlando, Florida, and if hired, the fellow will need to reside in the Central Florida Public Media coverage area.

How to Apply

To be considered for this position, please send an email to HR@CFpublic.org with your resume and a cover letter of interest telling us why you want to work in public media, what you hope to achieve in the fellowship, and your interest or experience in promoting traditionally underrepresented voices and issues in media. Please also include three work samples. Those samples could be in the form of news stories (audio or written), creative writing (five pages max), academic writing etc. To be considered in the first round of reviews please apply by April 3.

Central Florida Public Media is an equal-opportunity, equal-access employer. Central Florida Public Media’s employment decisions are based on applicants’ qualifications for the positions being considered. These decisions are made with no regard to race, sex, national origin, color, age, disability, veteran status, pregnancy, sexual orientation, religion, or any other protected status.

Central Florida Public Media seeks organizations that provide employment information to job seekers. If your organization would like to receive notification of vacancies at Central Florida Public Media, please contact:
Central Florida Public Media
11510 E. Colonial Drive
Orlando, FL 32817
HR@CFpublic.org

Internships at Central Florida Public Media

The Central Florida Public Media internship program (unpaid) is intended to provide students with the opportunity to observe and participate in the daily activities of a public radio newsroom, with the goal of acquiring the skills needed for broadcast employment.

The intern must be currently enrolled in an academic course or program, including but not limited to a university, senior college, community college, advanced degree program, or vocational school.

Documentation that the student is receiving academic credit for the internship must be provided.

The intern must be available for a minimum of 12 hours per week to participate in the program. The duration of the internship will be specified in advance. While Central Florida Public Media is happy to consider all internship applications, the student must be able to meet his/her required hours between 9:00 a.m. 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday. Generally, there is no night or weekend work available.

Internship tracks

There are two internship tracks with the news department, although exceptions will be made on a case-by-case basis. The two tracks are: reporting and show production.

The reporting internship track involves being assigned a story and preparing it from beginning to on-air and online for the afternoon. Work includes researching stories, finding sources, conducting interviews, writing copy, editing sound bites, and preparing the story for on-air broadcast and publishing online. The intern will also be encouraged to pitch and produce a long-form feature audio story by the end of the program.

The show production internship involves working with our “Are We There Yet?” podcast and radio show program unit. Work includes researching topics, identifying and booking guests, coming up with show ideas, writing digital news stories from interviews, feeding social media, and assisting with show production.

To apply for a Central Florida Public Media internship, send your resume and a cover letter with “INTERNSHIP” in the subject line to bbyrne@cfpublic.org. Please be sure to include your planned internship semester, dates of availability, and the track in which you are most interested.

What Our Interns Had to Say: